The house itself is lovely, and once inside, we had a very nice stay. We have no complaints at all about the house.
The problem was getting in the first night. There is only one non-stop flight to Reno from NYC, and it arrives late. We got to the house at 1am, exhausted and ready to sleep, in order to get up the next day to ski. We were given a 4 digit code for the lock box, but when we tried to apply it, we couldn’t push the buttons in, and some buttons were already pushed in and wouldn’t come up.
We didn’t know what to do. We were tired, and it was 6 degrees - we would take turns to warm up in the car, while someone tried to push the buttons in with a screwdriver. We started to wonder if we had the wrong code or if it was simply broken. We tried to call the property manager, but understandably, she didn’t answer. At this stage, now around 2.15am, we thought the four of us would be sleeping in the car with the engine on.
We drove to a gas station to try one last thing and got a large cup of hot water. 45 minutes later, back at the house, the hot water did the trick. We got in at 3.15am.
The property manager and the owner have been sympathetic and respond promptly, but have been clear that this was a one-off problem beyond their control. Their view is that this is just "one of those things" that is part of the risk of booking a rental property and arriving as late as we did.
As customers, we paid for the night, and we were entitled to trouble-free access to the house (no matter what time it is). Even if we had immediately worked out that the lock was frozen, it was still a 45 minute trip to get hot water. We were cold and exhausted. To have the property manager act like our inability to get into the house was our problem and not hers was, to us, unfair.
It's my belief that a partial refund for the first night would have been reasonable. I had a 30 minute phone call with the owner, and I appreciated he took the time to make the call. He did not, however, share my view that any sort of compensation would be appropriate. I'm not sure, but I think he felt I was being unreasonable in my expectations.
I do recommend this property, as it's comfortable, clean and convenient to ski fields and Tahoe City. It's extremely likely that if you choose this property, you'll have an excellent experience. My complaint is entirely with how the property manager and owner responded to our first night difficulties.